Sunnyside Swap Shop closed on August 31, 2013.

Know Your Neighbor – Carpet Cleaning By Bike

By Karen Hery, Sunnyside Swap Shop Co-op facilitator/coordinator

I’ve often said that our Know Your Neighbor posts are, at the very core, an electronic extension of good old fashion word-of-mouth recommendations . . . . tips between neighborhs on who’s great to do business with in our inner SE neighborhoods.

The story of this post starts with my daughter answering the door a few weeks ago and taking a flyer from Jeff Johnson of Green Steam Carpet Clean.

The thing that intrigued me about the flyer is that he does his whole carpet cleaning business by bike. Half because I really needed a few carpets cleaned and half because I wanted to see his bike set up, I gave him a call.

I’ve called him several times now and every time he’s answered the phone. Wish I could figure out how to be that available when people are trying to reach me!

He has a very nice special going on: three rooms cleaned for $68. I don’t actually even have three full rooms of carpet so he and I settled on a throw rug and a few carpeted landings with stairs for the same rate. He did a great job with our two couches too for an extra fee. With two cats and two teenagers and a whole family that likes to eat dinner in the living room, I’m pretty sure our couches needed more cleaning than the carpets.

He also takes carpets back to his shop where he can get them even more clean (by bike of course) which makes for an interesting show as he is riding by with a long carpet roll behind him.

His carpet cleaning services are the reason the Swap Shop no longer has playdough ground into the arts and crafts room carpet and a much cleaner gym storage room carpet too.

He’s starting a family of his own living on 41st and Taylor and he and his partner Ashley are delighted to be part of the swap shop, supporting teenagers as our newest Roost local business sponsor, and starting to trade and swap right along with the rest of us.

He wanted me to pass the word that he just put a few pairs of men’s size 9 basketball shoes in the swap clothing room this week. I know several of our dads have jumped into the men’s basketball groups that play weeknights up in the gym so I’m pretty sure we’ll have some takers for those.

I also asked him to pass on some of his wisdom earned by many years cleaning carpets on what to do and not do do with the latest carpet stains. He says most products do more to set the stain than clean it simply because anything left in a carpet attracts more dirt over time. A wet cloth over and over again with very little if any product is the second best thing to calling someone like him who has the equipment to both wet and extract moisture (and dirt) from carpets and couches.

Carpets and couches are a central part of our gathering spaces in the swap shop and The Roost. Jeff is going to be wheeling in on his bike on a regular basis leaving the swap shop couches and carpets better than he found them as part of his swap shop job.

Now, our only job, in return, is to spread the word so he can spend more time inside houses cleaning (and saving up for a new baby) and less time handing out flyers one by one.

Jeff says he goes out of his way to give referrals for other local businesses too so we can all support each other. Along with the businesses he likes to promote, there are some great local businesses listed on our web site: www.sunnysideswapshop.org and you can reach Jeff at: